


To Care For The Fragile

by TheStarOfCaroline



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-11
Updated: 2019-11-20
Packaged: 2021-01-28 23:51:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21400699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheStarOfCaroline/pseuds/TheStarOfCaroline
Summary: A french girl by the name of Silver is as ordinary as one can be. She lives in Britain, and keeps a wide array of reptiles and insects in the family home, much to her mother's genuine displeasure. Days go by seemingly endless, dull, untill she comes across something that catches her bug-loving attention.They have wandered too far from home. She told them it was a bad idea to stray so far from the kingdom. Now, they found themselves in an alien world, filled with titans that shake the very earth they walk on with every step. One of them seemed to have taken an interest in them, and though the youngest of the group trusts the giant, the elder siblings don't in the slightest.What will become of this encounter?
Comments: 5
Kudos: 45





	1. Encounter

It was a cold Wednesday afternoon. Despite being in the middle of January, snow has yet to fall and the streets were more or less flooded with the almost constant downpour of rain. A girl walked hastily down the sidewalk, her brown locks dangling out of the hood she pulled into her head. Her gloved hand gripped a broken umbrella at her side. Turning the corner, she ran across the street and hurried to climb up the few steps to the porch of her home. Messing with her keys for a moment, she unlocked the front door and stepped inside, water dripping onto the tiled floor.

"I'm home!" She called, but no-one answered. Only the nearly inaudible sound of shuffling could be heard from upstairs. Hanging up her jacket, she let out a sigh of relief. She kicked her shoes off and hurried upstairs where she was awaited. As she opened the door, all noise was immediately paused. Her room wasn't much to look at aside from the large shelves lining three of the four walls. There were countless terrariums stacked onto them, each of them containing a different species of lizard, snake or spider. A large aquarium stood idly by her bed, the guppies inside swimming around peacefully. A movement under her sheets caught her eyes as she adjusted her gold coloured glasses. Lifting the pale blue comforter, she wasn't surprised to see one of her bigger iguanas dumbly staring back at her. _"I still don't know how you manage to get out every day..." _She thought to herself as she lifted the reptile back into the nearest, empty tank with a loving smile. "Alright dearies, time for dinner!"

* * *

This wasn't supposed to happen.

The five siblings sat helplessly on a rock that stuck out of the puddle. The rain continued to fall, the drops of water much larger and colder than they were used to. "I'd choose the City over this any day." The second eldest shivered, huddling close to the rest of the group. The other four did not possess a voice to answer back with, they only scooted closer to one another to keep at least some warmth. It has been weeks since they left the kingdom. _Weeks._ She knew it was a bad idea. She didn't dare even think of what their parents might be going through, worrying day and night for their well being. And the occasional giant wheeled stag speeding by didn't help with the ever growing dread they all felt.

They were stuck in this world filled with titans, giant, monstrous creatures that tried to destroy them on sight, yelling with their earsplitting volume and strange language. The gendered child quickly wiped away a tear that dared to spill from her mask. They'll find a way back home. She'll make sure of it.

* * *

"Careful, only bite your food, not my finger!" The child of fourteen years laughed as she fed her oldest snake. It was a dark brown scaled, harmless creature that has been with her since it hatched two years ago. It was quite protective of her, hissing loudly every time she wanted to play with her tarantulas. The spiders never harmed her, but the snake would continue to hiss untill she put them away. Was it jealousy, or protection of property? The girl could never guess.

Speaking of the tarantulas, they were happily webbing up the cockroaches she gave them. The snake glared at the glass tank as the tail of a mouse dangled from its jaws much to it's owner's amusement. She chuckled as she gently pushed the snake's head lower so she could close the terrarium. Now that she fed everyone, it was time to feed herself.

* * *

The fall of water slows, then finally stops after what felt like an eternity. The siblings let out a sigh in perfect sync. They had no chance of drying themselves off with their soaked cloaks, and they wouldn't risk drowning while trying to swim to land. So they did the only thing they could do, and have been doing all day. They waited. One of the titans could come by any moment now, and either trample them, or get them to safety. The former option was most likely, they thought. "Ghost...what are you doing?" The young lady asked her younger sibling, who was stirring the water below with the tip of their broken nail as the other two younglings watched. They seemed to be quite happy, splashing the dirty water around like that. The aforementioned child by the name of Ghost only looked up at her, shrugged, then went back to splashing.

The eldest of them all put a hand between the horns of her mask in attempt at being reassuring. She only shook her head with the impression of a smile. "Yes, I know. It won't be long now... hopefully." 

* * *

Night has fallen. The five siblings were asleep huddled close to eachother somewhere, and the girl of fourteen was preparing to rest. Her pets have either already fallen into deep slumber, or were about to. She turned off her bedside lamp just in time for the front door to creak open, signaling her mother's return. A stubborn lady she was, only putting up with her daughter's antics because she was afraid of those pests she called her "companions". If the brown snake hated the tarantulas, it despised it's owner's mother. Ginger locks dangled out of a messy ponytail as the woman put her bag down at the table. The pitch black work dress she wore was unbuttoned at the top for unspecified reasons. The girl always resembled her father in every way -personality, complexion, interests, et cetera- but the one thing she got from her mother was her eyes, green as the flame of a copper wire.

The woman didn't spend too much time lingering in the kitchen. She finished her cup of coffee and went to the master bedroom, not bothering to change or wipe off her makeup. She was far too exhausted to care.

* * *

Morning arrived all too soon, early sunlight shining through the blinds right into the child's eyes. She was about to pull the sheets into her eyes to block to intruding sunlight when her alarm sounded with it's obnoxious ringing. She turned it off just in time to hear the ping of a notification on her phone. Picking up the device, she saw that it was a message from her friend.

_"Hey Silver! Just wanted to let you know that school is out today. Some jerk left the window in the IT room open and the rain blew in. It ruined most of the computers and effectively knocked out the power in the entire building- So don't bother getting out of bed! :)"_

The girl snickered slightly at this. Getting up, she looked around the room to find her little roommates awake and eagerly waiting for breakfast. She spent the next five minutes going around feeding all of them -all the lizards, snakes, spiders, and fish still peacefully swimming around in their tank. Not wanting to wake up her most likely sleeping mother, Silver quietly dressed up, combed her hair and done everything else in her usual routine. _"Time for a morning jog."_

* * *

The youngest of the five siblings stirred awake at the distant chirping of songbirds. They stretched, almost loosing balance and falling into the ever so slowly evaporating puddle below. They glanced at the rest of the group, still asleep. They had this urge to just swim across the water and go home. Home to Hallownest, where they can play with their many siblings in the safety of the palace...and they were going to try. They carefully slid into the water, their limbs flailing hastily as they swam towards the pavement. After what felt like forever, they hit shore and climbed out of the puddle that has been their prison for the last twenty four hours. _"I'll be back, siblings! I'll be back with a way to go home!" _They vowed to themselves, and their siblings. And then, they **ran.**

* * *

She ran. She had a content smile painted on her rosy cheeks as she jogged along the sidewalk with her MP3 playing her favourite melodies. She stopped at a red light and simply bounced in place as she waited. The light she stood at was rather close to a treeline, so she decided to stop for a quick bughunt to catch her breath. She knelt down and combed the grass carefully, chuckling at the few crickets that jumped away. There were many things to be seen. Snails, a few earthworms, ants busily hoarding food back home and...a small, suspicious looking creature. The pale headed youngling was leaning against the stem of a dandelion, it's little chest heaving with heavy breaths. It looked like the small one had just ran the marathon. It had small horns pointing upwards, two at each side of its head. It wore a cloak to hide a tiny black body, and what seemed to be a really small sword on its back.

Silver stared at the small being for a while untill it glanced at her briefly, almost immediately falling backwards. The poor thing was shivering at the very sight of her, and would have continued to shiver and slowly scoot away if she hadn't spoke up. 

"Hello there..." She spoke with a soft tone. "Are you...lost, little one? Do you need help?" She always had one-sided conversations with her pets, but it still felt unusual to say something so clishé. The tiny creature seemed to calm down the moment she finished her last question and jumped to its feet. It ran closer to the girl and tugged her hair in a very specific direction. _"That can only mean one thing." _She thought as she gently took the little one in her hands and stood up. "Show the way then." She said cheerfully, and was happy to see the creature simply beam with joy. It pointed forward, and she continued making her way across town.

_ **To be continued. . .** _


	2. Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Silver brings the distrustful group home, where she gets yelled at by her mother.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> «"text"» is translated French

It was later, around noon when the girl's mother woke up. She rubbed her eyes and failed to notice the black smudges of her mascara staining her hands. She yawned, and looked at the calendar hung up in the corner. _"...She should be at school..." _

She grabbed at her phone, which was resting on the bedside table. She struggled to get it open, her fingers hardly getting the screen to react with how ridiculously cracked it was. When she finally managed to type in her password <strike>which took several minutes to do,</strike> she went to her contact list immediately. She wanted to invite some... "friends" over.

*

Meanwhile, the daughter was trying her best to follow the tiny creature's directions. Because, with how fast she was going, she didn't always notice the little one pointing in a different way. She was actually getting tired. How much had this child ran? Just how far did those tiny legs manage to take them? Her question was soon answered when the small being started to tap on one of her fingers repeatedly. Looking around, she spotted the unusual group, still asleep, perched on that one rock that has been their prison for several days. With her heart breaking at the sight of their tattered cloaks and shivering little bodies, she gently placed the one she was holding into a pocket on the chest of her cardigan. She crouched down, ignoring the water soaking through her trainers and carefully picking up the little one on the side. They had asymmetrical horns on their head. Two larger, curly ones on one side, a smaller one on the other.

She moved as slowly as she could, and placed the sleeping child in her pocket beside their sibling. One by one, she picked up the group and put them in her pockets. Since they were asleep, she didn't want to risk them waking up because of her running. Slowly, she began making her way home, keeping a protective hand gently placed onto the pocket the little ones were in.

*

Arriving at her doorstep, Silver was about to reach for the handle when she heard a crash from upstairs. She quickly pushed the door open, and hurried inside. "M-"

**"ARGON!"**

The girl flinched. She got the already stirring group on the counter, and covered them with a plastic bowl.

«"Yes Mother-"»

«"GET THIS VERMIN OFF OF ME THIS INSTANCE!"»

<strike>Oh dear.</strike>

The child ran upstairs, kicking the door to her room open. What she saw there, made her stifle a laugh. He mother was sitting on her bed, franticly shaking her right leg back and forth. On her leg was a hissing brown reptile, trying to bite her. The woman was yelling profanities in French, sounding aggravated and terrified at the same time. Silver had to lean on the wall to catch her breath after she unsuccessfully tried not to laugh at the situation.

Meanwhile downstairs, the eldest of the five has woken up. They were pleasantly surprised that they weren't trapped on the island anymore, but were concerned about the weird..seal? That has been placed onto them. It wasn't a Seal of Binding, they'd sense the soul...were they captured? They franticly shook their sister awake.

Upstairs, Silver was being yelled at. She took her sweet time with removing her friend from her mother, and was now paying the price.

«"What are you even doing here?! You're supposed to be at school!"»

«"But it's cl-"»

«Do NOT talk back to me!"»

"..."

The woman continued to scold her daughter. Shouting at her about "not being able to invite friends over while there are animals in the house" and "There's only trouble with her"

Silver could only hang her head and shuffle her feet every now and then. The mother sighed and shot one last stern look at her daughter.

«"One more stunt like this...and I'm selling all of them. Got it?"»

The teary eyed girl nodded hesitantly and went to feed her companions. Anything to avoid her gaze. She heard the door of her mother's room slam closed not long after. Dropping the last cockroach into the rightmost spider enclosure, she couldn't help the small smile that appeared on her features. She crouched down at the aquarium, and pulled out a large glass case from under it. It was like one of the iguana tanks. It was completely empty at the moment though, so she had to design a suitable home for her newest additions.

She quietly snuck down the stairs and headed for the overturned bowl hiding the little ones. Getting to the table, she carefully lifted the plastic only to get a needle stabbed through her palm. She dropped the bowl back down and slapped her intact hand over her mouth. She could hear one of them talking to the others in a language she couldn't understand. So they are indeed sentient...but that's the least of her worries at the moment.

Under the cover of the dark blue plastic, two of the siblings were arguing by the dim light of a cracked lumafly lantern. The youngest of the group, Thorn, was gesturing with their little hand, franticly trying to explain to their sister that this particular titan meant no harm. Of course, she didn't believe them. The other three siblings could only sit and watch, worried and helpless. While the younger two were focused on their sister's ranting, the eldest tried to listen to what's happening outside. Shuffling and pained curses could be heard.

Silver hurriedly wrapped a kitchen cloth around the bleeding hole in her hand, quietly cursing under her breath. She adjusted her glasses and approached the bowl once again. Taking a deep breath, she grabbed the two sides of the bowl and yanked it up into the air. All movement ceased, save for the three vessels leaning against the wall falling back. Five pairs of void black eyes locked with the human's teary green ones. Though her breathing was shaky, she offered a genuine smile non the less.

_"...Bonjour."_

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading dears! I will update as soon as I can, and I very much appreciate constructive criticism, as this is my first fanfiction. The idea of this is not mine, neither is the game itself. I only own the human characters.
> 
> Stay tuned~


End file.
